I hadn't seen that before. What a well-written and enjoyable account. Thank you for that link.
I would mod you up, but am quite lacking in mod points. Perhaps this will come along in my meta-mod section today:-)
I read about a system very similar to this before in a book called, of all things, The Illuminati, by Larry Burkett. Burkett didn't go into the science behind it, but one of his characters utilizes satellites and their orbits to monitor seismic anomolies. By working in gravity and nice computer simulations, he is able to predict earthquakes several months in advance. Of course, no one listens to him, so its usefulness is somewhat mitigated by human stupidity. At any rate, I thought this a very interesting article.
We Don't Want Anymore Bears!
Or Bear-Sniffing PDA's either. But the radiation sniffer's quite convenient. You may never have that meeting now that the entire office is radioactive, but you'll definitely know whether it was worth going to or not...
Victor Shear and InterTrust
on
Real DRM
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Fortune magazine has an article in their most recent issue covering Vincent Shear, InterTrust, and the recent DRM patents lawsuits with Microsoft. I wonder if RealNetworks' DRM suite relies on similar technology...
The Hobbit Fund was founded by Grogo Constan-Underhill in the year 1383 of the Third Age through a cooperative effort of the Michel Delving Society and the Rohan-Isengard-Northfarthing Group (R.I.N.G.). The fund exists to help hobbits accept the passing of the elves into the Undying West and to raise support to support investigations into treatments for Ring Quest-related illnesses, injuries, or alterations to the Hobbit way of life. These funds will improve the quality of life for Hobbits both in the Hobbiton and Buckland regions, as well as those living in Bree and beyond, and will be a valuable source of care for future generations of Gamgees, Proudfeet, and Boffles, etc.
The Hobbit Fund receives contributions made by both Hobbits and other races, most notably the Men of Rohan, who feel a particular kinship with the Halfling people. The Mayor of Michel Delving (and Dean of the Hobbit Fund) offers recognition of each contribution in a letter of thanks or a pouch of Southfarthing's finest weed, as is applicable.
The Hobbit Fund helps transform an emotional and difficult parting of Elves from the Hobbits into a beneficial and caring time. Those affected by the fun are comforted through the realization that, though they can never attain the Undying Lands, they are still protected by the Men of the West, especially the Rangers who have been responsible for the guarding of the Shire for many years. Additionally, knowledge that will be beneficial for the future happiness of the Hobbit race is attained through the fund's many initiatives.
Since its founding, the Hobbit Fund has raised almost a mountain of Gold, much of which was generously donated by the Dwarves of Esgaroth and the Lonely Mountain. These funds have supported over ninety different projects designed to foster improved relations between the Dwarves of the Glittering Caves and the Riders of Rohan, overcome sickness brought on by contact with the dreaded Ringwraiths, and increase Middle-earth-wide knowledge of herbs, spices, and weeds, among other projects.
If you wish to donate to the Hobbit Fund, or if you would just like more information, you may contact Hama of the Guard (hama788@rohanmail.com) or visit the website at www.hobbitfund.org. Thank you for caring.
...or something like that. The fun thing about this list is its inherent subjectivity (like most any non-statistical lists). I would have put in Air conditioning (sometime in 1902), anti-lock brakes (mid 1920s), and possibly spam...
I don't know if the Doppler effect is in play, at least not when you're on the coaster itself, since you're staying at a constant distance from the person/people making the noise. On the ground, yes.
The world's police, Romanticism vs. Enlightenment
on
David Brin On LOTR
·
· Score: 1
Brin's one (of many people) who thinks that democracy and Enlightenment ideals are the future, and the rest of the world should just learn to accept their superiority as ideologies and catch up to the rest of us advanced super-men.
And that's America. I mean, look at us, policing the world like it's our God-mandated duty (I'm sorry, I guess God stopped existing about 35 years ago) - man-mandated duty to extend the benefits of democracy to the rest of the saps still in a sludge pond of monarchism, feudalism, and backwoods ways. And don't even talk to us about Eastern civilizations!
The real problem with this world-view is it's negation of tradition and human passion. That's okay, strip away every familiar aspect of your government and society and convert to an eglaterian state where you will be better off. Except that most of the rest of the world has never known freedom like that. And it's like overfeeding a starving person or putting a frog into boiling water. That frog's gonna jump out!
The only reason our democracy, and before that our revolution, worked, was because we DIDN'T try to subvert everything. Look what we took from England: A House of Delegates, Checks and Balances (which really came to a head with Charles the I and II, which is where John Locke comes in with his Second Treatise), a stable economic foundation (land to ideas as currency), our Declaration of Independence, even the office of President of US! Truly, the Founding Fathers only changed what they needed.
With Brin, and with so many other people, the past seems to hold value only as a curiosity, there to point at, laugh at, and occasionally moralize about. The past only exists to tell us where we don't want to be. And that's just plain ridiculous.
As for Lord of the Rings, it's the classic Romance wrapped up inside an Enlightened story - look at the Fellowship, for God's sake. Have you ever seen a better melting pot? And while there are heroes and leaders (Romance), aren't they there for the good of the people (Enlightenment)? What about the Rings? Couldn't you easily make the case that they are simply ancient holdovers from a long-dead world, and their eradication would usher in an age of Peace, Reason, and "Enlightenment". Afterall, learning with the Numenoreans ceased when they were assaulted by the forces of Mordor.
My point is, I interpret LotR one way, Brin interprets it another. Is either valid? Is either right? I'd like to think I am right and he is wrong, or at least misguided. But that's just me.
Oh yeah, if he's all gung-ho about the future, why are his works, for which he is most famous, stories about a future gone horribly wrong?
Seems to me that if they really wanna make life from scratch, they should start from scratch. are they doing that? No. They're taking pre-existing elements and sticking them together in a dish. That's not creation, it's manipulation. Reminds me of the joke of God and the biologist who had a bet to see who was greater. The biologist says to God "Look at all the great things man has created! We can even create man." So they go at it. God breathes real deep, says a few words, and a man rises up! The biologist takes some dirt and throws in some electricity and up rises a man. God looks at the biologist and says...Ah ah ah! You gotta create him from scratch. Of course all the biologist can do is "scratch" his head, because as we all know, creating life from scratch violates one of the Laws of Thermodynamics...
Three major geek factors here are Legos (which most of us played with as kids, I'm sure), M.C.Escher (his artwork is enough to blow your mind even if you're not smoking anything, and C programming for a non-work, non-"productive" project. This gets a pretty high geek factor score, IMHO.
Chalk up another win for Stupid Posters. I can't believe how many people are bickering over whether it's theft or not. But then again, I was stupid enough to read them, so...
I am currently in my senior year and running a VERY small online business. Though it isn't brick-and-mortar, it still requires time and maintenance, two things which I've been severely lacking in these past few months.
Running a business has been more hassle than I wanted, though not more than I expected. I just wanted to not go through life without having done most everything; now I can check off Sole Propietorship!
If you go back to school, make it your top priority. It isn't necessary to be successful (don't let anyone tell you differently), but once you're in, you really should make the most of every credit hour and everything else needs to take a backseat for a while. Remember, it's not forever. Okay, I'm done..
You assume that what you view as "good" is the same as God's view of it. I happen to think that, partially due to our inability to see ahead, and partially due to our innate prejudices and frailties, we often look at events or circumstances in our lives and say, "I've had bad luck!" or "God was angry with me, and thusly have I been punished." But often that which seems "bad" now turns out to be good later down the road, and vice versa. Remember the story about the wise young man who found a horse. The people in the village said of him: "What a fortunate man!" Later in the year, he was riding the horse and it threw him, causing him to break his leg. The people then said of him: "What an unlucky fellow!". Only the next day the village was attacked, and all the young men died in battle, except for the man with the broken leg. Who are we to say what is "good" or "lucky"? It is only in the end that you find what has truly been good. And one more thing: the "good" that God intends for us is often more related to spiritual needs and nature - thus, good can often be translated to "spiritual benefits". That is how a Christian can say "I will yet trust in God" while suffering under the worst conditions and circumstances (See Job for reference).
...but your drink of choice for LAN matches, late-night pr0n surfing, etc. is just that -- your choice. Some people get a kick out of Dr. Pepper, some folks love Tea (hot or cold!) and some still stick with Mountain Dew. That's actually my personal fave for gaming, as it tends to give me a bounce back after I get shaky from gaming too long. I do notice a slight "letdown" after gaming for long amounts of time. I'm not sure if that's because it's just an exhausting activity, or if I'm crashing from my caffeine and sugar intake.
It seems to me though, that everyone will always have their favourite drink which, of course, always far surpasses any other drink. And why shouldn't it...?:-)
I believe you're right about using hardware rendering in the future...unfortunately, with current computing power, I don't believe it is a viable solution, at least not for consumers...
What you're talking about is partly a hardware thing, partly a software thing. Here's why: I can render out a scene for my incredibly innovative but poorly funded sci-fi flick in two ways; 1). As one contiguous movie file or 2). As separate, high-quality image files (say TIFF or TARGA), which I will later edit individually. Whatever I choose to do, the speed of that render is essentially based on the software I'm using (am I using a highly optimized 3d application?) PLUS the speed of the hardware, mostly CPU. Regardless, the scenario you're talking about is less about realtime capturing (and therefore AGP bandwidth usage) and more about software rendering application optimization and up-to-date hardware...
Actually, I understand your point quite well. I think you're not understanding what I'm saying...
OK, scenario: I use my expensive GFX card to play Unreal Tournament. I don't just want to grab screenshots. I want to actually grab sequential frames in REAL-TIME from my game while I'm playing to create movies.
That takes a LOT of compute cycles, not just from the GFX card, but from the entire system. What I'm saying makes sense, if you think about it.
Use a separate capture device to take what is being processed by my expensive GFX card (which utilizes enough compute cycles as it is!) and capture that video to a different box. That way you're getting full output/input.
Using the GFX card to play AND capture at the same time is just not feasible, not to mention unwise (read: stability issues).
Rendering you want - capturing the data is a different thing completely. If I own a production company, I wouldn't want to have my rendering device also be my capture device -- there are chances for an unstable setup. Also, with two devices (vs. the one device to do both rendering and capturing) I have more power to devote to both, since they're separate devices on separate boxes, they each get more compute cycles: that = faster, better quality productions...
To get the kind of touch-and-response type interface that Mr. Nielson is talking about, I would think that a major revolution in the way we code operating systems would be needed.
This isn't just implementing a tactile GUI over our current methods (filesystems, folders, root, etc), but would require a complete overhauling of how OSes work.
I'm not sure, but something like that might require the use of sophisticated A.I. systems that can respond well to analog actions (like pressure or heat or even sound)...if tactile GUI's are the future, it might be a longer time coming than Mr. Nielson hopes.
Anyway, Banzai travels to the 8th dimension, not the 5th, so you get a point for the great movie reference, but you lose a point for the incorrect dimension. D'oh! At least you still came out even.
Slashdot Mirror
...Man, I miss Microsoft Bob... I mean, MAN, THAT MICROSOFT BOB SURE WAS A PIECE OF CRAP!! (adjusts inner monologue to [inner-only])
I hadn't seen that before. What a well-written and enjoyable account. Thank you for that link. I would mod you up, but am quite lacking in mod points. Perhaps this will come along in my meta-mod section today :-)
I read about a system very similar to this before in a book called, of all things, The Illuminati, by Larry Burkett. Burkett didn't go into the science behind it, but one of his characters utilizes satellites and their orbits to monitor seismic anomolies. By working in gravity and nice computer simulations, he is able to predict earthquakes several months in advance. Of course, no one listens to him, so its usefulness is somewhat mitigated by human stupidity. At any rate, I thought this a very interesting article.
We Don't Want Anymore Bears! Or Bear-Sniffing PDA's either. But the radiation sniffer's quite convenient. You may never have that meeting now that the entire office is radioactive, but you'll definitely know whether it was worth going to or not...
Fortune magazine has an article in their most recent issue covering Vincent Shear, InterTrust, and the recent DRM patents lawsuits with Microsoft. I wonder if RealNetworks' DRM suite relies on similar technology...
The Hobbit Fund receives contributions made by both Hobbits and other races, most notably the Men of Rohan, who feel a particular kinship with the Halfling people. The Mayor of Michel Delving (and Dean of the Hobbit Fund) offers recognition of each contribution in a letter of thanks or a pouch of Southfarthing's finest weed, as is applicable.
The Hobbit Fund helps transform an emotional and difficult parting of Elves from the Hobbits into a beneficial and caring time. Those affected by the fun are comforted through the realization that, though they can never attain the Undying Lands, they are still protected by the Men of the West, especially the Rangers who have been responsible for the guarding of the Shire for many years. Additionally, knowledge that will be beneficial for the future happiness of the Hobbit race is attained through the fund's many initiatives.
Since its founding, the Hobbit Fund has raised almost a mountain of Gold, much of which was generously donated by the Dwarves of Esgaroth and the Lonely Mountain. These funds have supported over ninety different projects designed to foster improved relations between the Dwarves of the Glittering Caves and the Riders of Rohan, overcome sickness brought on by contact with the dreaded Ringwraiths, and increase Middle-earth-wide knowledge of herbs, spices, and weeds, among other projects.
If you wish to donate to the Hobbit Fund, or if you would just like more information, you may contact Hama of the Guard (hama788@rohanmail.com) or visit the website at www.hobbitfund.org. Thank you for caring.
not to mention jeeps, microwave, radar and sonar, plastic wrap, and bug spray.
I think this list applied to the 20th century and beyond. Capitalism's been around a bit longer than that, as has democracy.
...or something like that. The fun thing about this list is its inherent subjectivity (like most any non-statistical lists). I would have put in Air conditioning (sometime in 1902), anti-lock brakes (mid 1920s), and possibly spam...
I don't know if the Doppler effect is in play, at least not when you're on the coaster itself, since you're staying at a constant distance from the person/people making the noise. On the ground, yes.
...if this guy would do my taxes?
And that's America. I mean, look at us, policing the world like it's our God-mandated duty (I'm sorry, I guess God stopped existing about 35 years ago) - man-mandated duty to extend the benefits of democracy to the rest of the saps still in a sludge pond of monarchism, feudalism, and backwoods ways. And don't even talk to us about Eastern civilizations!
The real problem with this world-view is it's negation of tradition and human passion. That's okay, strip away every familiar aspect of your government and society and convert to an eglaterian state where you will be better off. Except that most of the rest of the world has never known freedom like that. And it's like overfeeding a starving person or putting a frog into boiling water. That frog's gonna jump out!
The only reason our democracy, and before that our revolution, worked, was because we DIDN'T try to subvert everything. Look what we took from England: A House of Delegates, Checks and Balances (which really came to a head with Charles the I and II, which is where John Locke comes in with his Second Treatise), a stable economic foundation (land to ideas as currency), our Declaration of Independence, even the office of President of US! Truly, the Founding Fathers only changed what they needed.
With Brin, and with so many other people, the past seems to hold value only as a curiosity, there to point at, laugh at, and occasionally moralize about. The past only exists to tell us where we don't want to be. And that's just plain ridiculous.
As for Lord of the Rings, it's the classic Romance wrapped up inside an Enlightened story - look at the Fellowship, for God's sake. Have you ever seen a better melting pot? And while there are heroes and leaders (Romance), aren't they there for the good of the people (Enlightenment)? What about the Rings? Couldn't you easily make the case that they are simply ancient holdovers from a long-dead world, and their eradication would usher in an age of Peace, Reason, and "Enlightenment". Afterall, learning with the Numenoreans ceased when they were assaulted by the forces of Mordor.
My point is, I interpret LotR one way, Brin interprets it another. Is either valid? Is either right? I'd like to think I am right and he is wrong, or at least misguided. But that's just me.
Oh yeah, if he's all gung-ho about the future, why are his works, for which he is most famous, stories about a future gone horribly wrong?
Seems to me that if they really wanna make life from scratch, they should start from scratch. are they doing that? No. They're taking pre-existing elements and sticking them together in a dish. That's not creation, it's manipulation. Reminds me of the joke of God and the biologist who had a bet to see who was greater. The biologist says to God "Look at all the great things man has created! We can even create man." So they go at it. God breathes real deep, says a few words, and a man rises up! The biologist takes some dirt and throws in some electricity and up rises a man. God looks at the biologist and says...Ah ah ah! You gotta create him from scratch. Of course all the biologist can do is "scratch" his head, because as we all know, creating life from scratch violates one of the Laws of Thermodynamics...
Three major geek factors here are Legos (which most of us played with as kids, I'm sure), M.C.Escher (his artwork is enough to blow your mind even if you're not smoking anything, and C programming for a non-work, non-"productive" project. This gets a pretty high geek factor score, IMHO.
Chalk up another win for Stupid Posters. I can't believe how many people are bickering over whether it's theft or not. But then again, I was stupid enough to read them, so...
I am currently in my senior year and running a VERY small online business. Though it isn't brick-and-mortar, it still requires time and maintenance, two things which I've been severely lacking in these past few months.
Running a business has been more hassle than I wanted, though not more than I expected. I just wanted to not go through life without having done most everything; now I can check off Sole Propietorship!
If you go back to school, make it your top priority. It isn't necessary to be successful (don't let anyone tell you differently), but once you're in, you really should make the most of every credit hour and everything else needs to take a backseat for a while. Remember, it's not forever. Okay, I'm done..
You assume that what you view as "good" is the same as God's view of it. I happen to think that, partially due to our inability to see ahead, and partially due to our innate prejudices and frailties, we often look at events or circumstances in our lives and say, "I've had bad luck!" or "God was angry with me, and thusly have I been punished." But often that which seems "bad" now turns out to be good later down the road, and vice versa. Remember the story about the wise young man who found a horse. The people in the village said of him: "What a fortunate man!" Later in the year, he was riding the horse and it threw him, causing him to break his leg. The people then said of him: "What an unlucky fellow!". Only the next day the village was attacked, and all the young men died in battle, except for the man with the broken leg. Who are we to say what is "good" or "lucky"? It is only in the end that you find what has truly been good. And one more thing: the "good" that God intends for us is often more related to spiritual needs and nature - thus, good can often be translated to "spiritual benefits". That is how a Christian can say "I will yet trust in God" while suffering under the worst conditions and circumstances (See Job for reference).
...but your drink of choice for LAN matches, late-night pr0n surfing, etc. is just that -- your choice. Some people get a kick out of Dr. Pepper, some folks love Tea (hot or cold!) and some still stick with Mountain Dew. That's actually my personal fave for gaming, as it tends to give me a bounce back after I get shaky from gaming too long. I do notice a slight "letdown" after gaming for long amounts of time. I'm not sure if that's because it's just an exhausting activity, or if I'm crashing from my caffeine and sugar intake. :-)
It seems to me though, that everyone will always have their favourite drink which, of course, always far surpasses any other drink. And why shouldn't it...?
What you're talking about is partly a hardware thing, partly a software thing. Here's why: I can render out a scene for my incredibly innovative but poorly funded sci-fi flick in two ways; 1). As one contiguous movie file or 2). As separate, high-quality image files (say TIFF or TARGA), which I will later edit individually. Whatever I choose to do, the speed of that render is essentially based on the software I'm using (am I using a highly optimized 3d application?) PLUS the speed of the hardware, mostly CPU. Regardless, the scenario you're talking about is less about realtime capturing (and therefore AGP bandwidth usage) and more about software rendering application optimization and up-to-date hardware...
Actually, I understand your point quite well. I think you're not understanding what I'm saying...
OK, scenario: I use my expensive GFX card to play Unreal Tournament. I don't just want to grab screenshots. I want to actually grab sequential frames in REAL-TIME from my game while I'm playing to create movies.
That takes a LOT of compute cycles, not just from the GFX card, but from the entire system. What I'm saying makes sense, if you think about it.
Use a separate capture device to take what is being processed by my expensive GFX card (which utilizes enough compute cycles as it is!) and capture that video to a different box. That way you're getting full output/input.
Using the GFX card to play AND capture at the same time is just not feasible, not to mention unwise (read: stability issues).
Rendering you want - capturing the data is a different thing completely. If I own a production company, I wouldn't want to have my rendering device also be my capture device -- there are chances for an unstable setup. Also, with two devices (vs. the one device to do both rendering and capturing) I have more power to devote to both, since they're separate devices on separate boxes, they each get more compute cycles: that = faster, better quality productions...
Likewise, a production house would probably have dedicated hardware for capturing video, as opposed to using the in-box video card...
This isn't just implementing a tactile GUI over our current methods (filesystems, folders, root, etc), but would require a complete overhauling of how OSes work.
I'm not sure, but something like that might require the use of sophisticated A.I. systems that can respond well to analog actions (like pressure or heat or even sound)...if tactile GUI's are the future, it might be a longer time coming than Mr. Nielson hopes.
Anyway, Banzai travels to the 8th dimension, not the 5th, so you get a point for the great movie reference, but you lose a point for the incorrect dimension. D'oh! At least you still came out even.